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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Business Is Business

The tar on the rooftop was tacky and Taylor had little doubt becoming a permanent stain on his clothing. It wasn’t as if he were lying atop the abandoned building with hopes of introducing tar stains as the next sartorial trend. This was business, plain and simple, and business trumped personal comfort every single day of his week.

He shifted slightly and brought the spotter scope to his eye. The distance was too great for its limited optics to offer him much detail, but it told him two things he, really, needed to know.

The clients were early and they’d breached the terms of the deal by bringing someone with them. He sighed softly. Were they planning some kind of surprise for him? He knew the answer to that all too well. How many times had this scenario played out and played out badly?

He provided a service to people who had reasons for not wanting to go through proper channels. He provided quality goods at competitive prices and he delivered on time. He honored his obligations stringently. If THEY were unwilling or unable to conduct a simple business transaction without trying to dick him over or cheat him, that was fine with him. He didn’t really understand why they did it but his response was inevitably the same.

If they didn’t want the organ he had in the cooler next to him, somebody would. He slid back from the roof’s edge, stowed his stuff and melted away into the night.